arcane
by lotus head
Summary: Ryou centric. [The gold glinted among seafoam peanuts and balled up newspaper.] ::packed with refrences, possible AU::


**DISCLAMER** I SUDO OWN YU GI OH.

**WARNINGS **T, for safety! There's nothing really.

**arcane**

* * *

The package came three days before his fifteenth birthday, all cardboard and ducktape and stamps from Egypt.

He pulled out his Exact-o-knife, and got to work.

The gold glinted among seafoam peanuts and balled up newspaper.

-

The metal was cold on his skin.

-

There were eyes constantly watching him, he was always being followed. The trouble was, there was never a visible person.

So Ryou tried to pass it off as paranoia and tried to ignore the breath ghosting at the back of his neck.

_There must be a draft somewhere…_

-

_bȝ_

Ryou ignored the fact that whenever he doodled while daydreaming in class, the scribbles in the margins of his schoolwork looked suspiciously like hieroglyphs.

But of course they weren't--- after all, Ryou didn't know any Egyptian.

(1)

-

The tension was tangible.

It was curling up, curling up like a noose-

_I'm choking. I'm choking. Please, help, I'm choking-_

Ryou did not believe in God. He believed in fate and destiny, and he hated it.

_I'm choking._

-

The room was dark, and the only things in the room were corners, shadows, and Ryou.

It was lonely, so lonely, but he felt nothing. Like a wet, warm cloth was laid over his eyes, it was all stifling and the dark was pushing at him.

He saw nothing, and he felt nothing but the pressure.

-

He said nothing, when he finally woke up.

-

It took days to get the blood stains out of his shirt, and he knew the blood wasn't his.

-

He was going insane. When voices you know aren't your own start talking to you in your head, that must mean you are going insane.

_No, no. You're not insane. That would make it rather bothersome for me. _

Yes, he was definitely going insane.

-

He looked in the mirror, and the reflection was smirking back at him.

Ryou cried, alone in the bathroom, dripping bathwater and tears.

-

The next day he bought more sheets, and covered up all the mirrors in the apartment.

-

_There's no escape there's no escape there's no escape-_

The only thing that seemed to get rid of it was the sleeping pills. So he stocked up and ignored the labels.

-

Ryou wondered if he could be going insane, and checked out psychology books at the library.

-

_**Insanity**, or **madness**, is a general term for a semi-permanent, severe __mental disorder__. The concept has been used in a number of ways historically. Today it is most commonly encountered as a generic informal term, or in the more narrow legal context of __criminal insanity__. In the medical profession, it is nowadays avoided in favor of specific diagnoses of __mental illness_

(2)

-

When he decided that the psychology books had nothing to help him, he looked in his encyclopedia of the occult.

It proved to be a little more useful, and bookmarked the pages titled 'ghosts' and 'possession'.

-

_As the savage commonly explains the processes of inanimate nature by supposing that they are produced by living beings working in or behind the phenomena, so he explains the phenomena of life itself. If an animal lives and moves, it can only be, he thinks, because there is a little animal inside which moves it. If a man lives and moves, it can only be because he has a little man or animal inside, who moves him. The animal inside the animal, the man inside the man, is the soul. And as the activity of an animal or man is explained by the presence of the soul, so the repose of sleep or death is explained by its absence; sleep or trance being the temporary, death being the permanent absence of the soul. _

(3)

_-_

御札

He spent hours huddled over his desk, practicing his calligraphy.

(4)

-

He checked his pantry. He was out of candles again.

-

_The easiest way to exorcise a yūrei is to help it fulfill its purpose. When the reason for the strong emotion binding the spirit to Earth is gone, the yūrei is satisfied and can move on. Traditionally, this is accomplished by family members enacting revenge upon the yūrei's slayer, or when the ghost consummates its passion/love with its intended lover, or when its remains are discovered and given a proper burial with all rites performed._

(5)

-

(If you listened outside of his door in the middle of the night- particularly between 2 and 3 a.m. you could hear him having a one-sided conversation with the empty air.)

(6)

-

When a strange looking book suddenly popped up on the foot of his bed, he was curious.

'_Book of the Dead…?'_

He read it despite his bad feeling about it.

(7)

-

_The deceased soul must recite the "declaration of innocence" which is addressed to Osiris and consists of the denial of a series of wrong-doings in order to assure Osiris that he has lived a decent life. The deceased must then address the 42 judges by name and deny a further 42 transgressions (one per judge). If the deceased is subsequently found worthy he will be taken before Osiris who will lead him to the realm of the blessed._

(8)

-

_I have done no falsehood, I have not robbed, I have not killed men._

He tried to ignore the laughing.

(9)

* * *

**by** T.I.B.E.-sway-** completed** 3.3.2007 **

* * *

**

**REFERENCES**

(1) _bȝ_ - this is Egyptian. Since it is impossible to do hieroglyphs on fanfic. It means 'soul'. And, oh frick-a-crap, the second symbol didn't show up... stupid fanfiction! Anyways, it looks a lot like a 3.

(2) 'insanity' definition from wikipedia.

(3) excerpt from 'The Golden Bough', by James Franzer

(4) 御札 – an ofuda, holy Shinto writings containing the name of a kami. It basically repels ghosts. This just means 'ofuda'.

(5) 'yūrei' exorcism info from wikipedia. A yūrei is a Japanese ghost.

(6) between 2 and 3 a.m. is the Japanese witching hour.

(7) the Book of the Dead is the common name for the ancient Egyptian funerary texts known as _The Book of Coming_ or _Going_ _Forth By Day_.

(8) Chapter 125 excerpt from the Book of the Dead.

(9) this is one of the statements of denial for chapter 125. It really cracked me up. I mean, heck, Bakura. Yeah. XD

Extra note- the Book of the Dead was translated and published. So that's why Ryou could get his hands on a copy.

The title essentially means mysterious, or secret.

* * *

HA! End. Heeheehee. 

It was purposely confusing. The voice is obviously Bakura. This is either an AU in which Bakura really _is _just a ghost, or it takes place before Ryou knows what it really is. I think the order of the events seems rather off. So if it makes more sense to you, pretend they aren't in order.

I'm sorry, it's just so much fun to abuse Ryou! There's nothing but slight psychological abuse going on here, by the way. And, I can totally see this happening. I mean, Ryou-chan is already into the occult. So one of the first things he would think, of course, would be 'ghost!'

You're welcome. I did lots of research. : P

I am taking fic requests! If it's a pairing I like, I'd be glad to do it. Give me a prompt, please?

COMMENT! CRITICIZE! COMPLIMENT!


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